The Science of SleepMichel Gondry is well known for his crazy music videos (like the White Stripes "Lego" video). He has a crazy love for creating stunning visuals with stop-motion animation and eschews the more modern computer animation techniques like CGI. His last movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, did justice to the brilliant Charlie Kauffman script and gave us visual representations of memory and neurosis through tricks of scale and set design (like adult Jim Carry hiding under a giant kitchen table or swimming in the kitchen sink - man that movie was really great, wasn't it? I have to go back and see it again now.) He also created that Jim Carry "Peacan Pie" video with the crazy bed-car.
Here takes on writing as well as directing a feature-length film. The special effects are charmingly cute (the 1 second time machine, a cardboard city rising from the ground, the TV studio that is his subconscious) and the characters are charming and cute as well. The movie takes place in France, but Stephane does not speak French well so most of the time he relies on English, occasionally drifting into Spanish as well. He has trouble differentiating between dream and reality, occasionally getting himself into trouble by acting things out in the real world that he thinks are only a dream. He also has trouble opening up and showing his true feelings to Stephanie, the girl next door who shares some of his quirky sensibilities (it's Parallel Synchronized Randomness he believes, that two people share the same dreams at the same time).
This movie was a lot like Rushmore, it exists on the borderline between fantasy and reality and we identify with the characters, not because they resemble the way we are, but because they resemble the way we see ourselves in our imaginations. Their crazy actions resonate with our crazy emotions. The end result is a beautiful, wonderful film that dares to be different and pulls it off. It is hilarious and heartbreaking and amazing. Definitely worth seeing and maybe worth buying. Gael Garcia Bernal is probably our favorite Mexican actor right now.
Here takes on writing as well as directing a feature-length film. The special effects are charmingly cute (the 1 second time machine, a cardboard city rising from the ground, the TV studio that is his subconscious) and the characters are charming and cute as well. The movie takes place in France, but Stephane does not speak French well so most of the time he relies on English, occasionally drifting into Spanish as well. He has trouble differentiating between dream and reality, occasionally getting himself into trouble by acting things out in the real world that he thinks are only a dream. He also has trouble opening up and showing his true feelings to Stephanie, the girl next door who shares some of his quirky sensibilities (it's Parallel Synchronized Randomness he believes, that two people share the same dreams at the same time).
This movie was a lot like Rushmore, it exists on the borderline between fantasy and reality and we identify with the characters, not because they resemble the way we are, but because they resemble the way we see ourselves in our imaginations. Their crazy actions resonate with our crazy emotions. The end result is a beautiful, wonderful film that dares to be different and pulls it off. It is hilarious and heartbreaking and amazing. Definitely worth seeing and maybe worth buying. Gael Garcia Bernal is probably our favorite Mexican actor right now.
1 comment:
Gimme some sugar, I AM yo' neighbor!
Seriously though, I love,love, loved this movie. You have to be in the right mood to watch it but Gael Garcia Bernal is SO awesome. I totally loved him in this movie. It was one of his many great performances that is too good to miss. He was just so lovable and cute and hilarious. Great movie.
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